Right. That's the per person limit. She could give her son & wife and/or grandchildren $14K each.And if her husband is still alive, he can give $14K to the son (I'll call him Junior) as well (and $14K to the daughter-in-law and $14K to each grandchild)

Alternatively, there is the possibility to give Junior $14K this year, and give him another $14K on Jan 1st. (which may or may not be sufficient for what is needed.)

And there's the option to lend him $16K, make him sign a note on it, and make him make payments on it, and maybe forgive the debt in her will (or potentially partially forgive it in 2014 and 2015)If he doesn't make payments on it, I think the IRS could potentially consider it a $30K gift - because that's what it looks like (At least if you told me the story I'd say "yeah, that's a $30K gift, they're just trying to avoid gift taxes .")

But probably the simplest way for someone who doesn't have a large net worth is to use the "unified credit" - which lets you give away in life up to $1.7M, although it counts against what you can give away when you die - see form 709 as has already been suggested.